35 



THE HOMES OF ORCHIDS. 



RICHNESS and diversity characterise the vegetation of all tropical 

 climates, except those remarkable for their aridity, and where- 

 ever we get heat and moisture in abundance there we find the 

 Orchids luxuriating, especially the epiphytes, which clothe the 

 tree stems with verdant foliage and brilliantly-coloured flowers, 

 filling the air with hundreds of indescribable odours, and dancing 

 about on every breeze, like myriads of marvellous winged insects, 

 or exciting attention by their stateliness and aristocratic beauty. 

 In that great archipelago, whereof Java, Borneo, and Sumatra 

 are the principal islands, the necessary conditions for tropical 

 vegetable life seem to be exactly provided, and there, accordingly, 

 plants of innumerable kinds grow with rapidity and vigour, form- 

 ing a density of vegetation such as non-travellers of temperate 

 climes like our own can form but a very imperfect idea. Java, 

 especially, is wonderfully rich in plant forms. " Few spots," says 

 Dr. Seeman, "support a more luxuriant and diversified vegeta- 

 tion than the Island of Java. It is literally teeming with botanical 

 treasures. Ferns and orchids, palms and oaks, bananas and 

 nutmegs, vines and convolvolus, and an endless host of other 

 plants, of which not even the name has penetrated beyond the 

 circle of scientific botanists, cover its surface." But as in most 

 other tropical lands where there are considerable elevations, there 

 is also a good range of temperature ; for instance, the traveller 

 already quoted observes, still referring to Java : " After emerging 

 from the Coast region, and ascending to the height of 4 to 6,000 

 feet, one experiences so great a change in everything surrounding 

 him, that he can hardly believe himself to be in the same island. 

 Instead of the sultry heat and clammy atmosphere, he now in- 

 hales a pure, cool air, which exercises a delightful reaction upon 

 his spirits ; mountain streams of delicious coolness are met with 

 at every step, and a bright verdure is spread over hill and dale." 

 Yet there essentially tropical plants are still found, and it affords 

 a hint that some of the most successful cultivators of Orchids 

 have taken full advantage of, in reducing the excessively high 

 temperatures which were at one time considered necessary to 

 these plants. 



One feature of tropical vegetation which differs greatly from 

 that of temperate climes, is the large numbers of species found in 

 a comparatively small area. In Europe, for example, we have 

 large forests of one or two species of trees, and thousands of 



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